We Are Fresno: Helping Others with Heart

A Fresno man who had a heart transplant 15 years ago is helping others in their own second chances.

The 75-year-old now spends time mentoring former prison inmates. He says his road to getting a heart transplant wasn’t easy.

Faith is the heart of life for Jim Westgate. Who was diagnosed with a genetic heart condition 15 years ago. Westgate underwent heart transplant in 2000.

"My older brother had his heart transplant in 1999, I had mine in 2000, and my twin brother had one in 2007," he said.  

All three men are alive and well today, celebrating milestones they once doubted they’d make, but Westgate’s road to transplant stopped when doctor’s found a mass on his kidney.

"They told us they were 90% that it was going to be cancerous," Westgate said.

Miraculously, it wasn’t, and Westgate moved on to the toughest surgery of all. A heart transplant.

"I was either going to wake up and see my family, my wife especially, or I was going to wake up and see Christ," he said.

Involved with Inner City Ministries all his life, now Westgate spends time mentoring men like Alfred Delsid, who once walked a very different path.

"I was ornery, just, in and out of jail, was on parole, probation. I continuously fight to not be that same person I was," Delsid said. 

Part of his fight, the man Delsid’s adopted as his "grandpa."

"That’s something I need in my life, as, some, a grandparent, a mentor, or just somebody solid in my life, that is there, for me, for me," Delsid said.

The two meet for lunch three times a week, a relationship Delsid calls priceless.

"It’s just breathtaking, just knowing that I have someone in my life, that I can count on," Delsid said. 

Westgate says, the tough moments are all part of a bigger plan. Thanks to a love that only comes from the heart.

Megan Rupe, reporting.